There is a website for Aspergers Syndrome (mild and special form of autism) which asks if one or both of your parents are engineers so apparently some have tried to link the knack for engineering design with autism. I do think exceptionally bright people can sometimes be socially quirky. Autism usually is linked to concrete sequential learners. People with autism often have trouble with conceptual and abstract thinking which makes graphic design difficult.
Theresa Haugen
Doctoral candidate
University of Minnesota
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From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Swanson, Gunnar [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 9:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Designers Think Through Einstein
David Balkwill wrote on Fri 11/21/2008 6:19 AM
> How much information is available of the detailed thought processes of
> designers while they're designing? Any IRM scans while designing?
[snip]
> Maybe some of the other designers reading this could add some personal
> experience to the thread.
Although I think I know what you mean, my personal experience and my problem with the question is that I'm not really sure when I'm designing and when I'm not designing, That's one of the things I was trying to get at with the Flash movie I made in response to the thread in June about definitions of design. It's at http://www.gunnarswanson.com/definedesign/ (If it doesn't inspire response, I'd appreciate comments--on or off list--about why it doesn't seem to develop conversation.)
> Are there any established links to autism amongst designers? I have
> feelings about the trade off of our highly developed spacial awareness,
> and the ease of expressing complex geometry through drawing, against
> some other missing abilities.
I've never seen or heard of a link. In my family, the people who test high for traits of autism are all mathematicians. I don't know if it's apocryphal but I've heard many times that graphic designers are second only to writers in rates of dyslexia but this is the first time I've seen speculation about autism.
Gunnar
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